<IT WORLD> Google stocks up on patents
By Martin J Young
HUA HIN, Thailand - Google announced one of its largest and most ambitious
deals to date this week when the search company announced it had entered into
an agreement to buy handset and tablet maker Motorola Mobility for US$12.5
billion.
The arrangement, which priced per share at over 60% higher than the market
value of Motorola stock, will give Google a hardware manufacturer to work with
for its development of the world's most popular smart-phone operating system,
Android.
Google will run Motorola Mobility, which has about 20,000 employees, as a
separate business and the transaction is expected to close at the end of this
year or early next.
Patent acquisition is also a fundamental driving force for Google and possibly
the one that it justified for paying such a premium. Motorola Mobility holds
17,000 existing patents and has 7,500 applications pending. This portfolio puts
it on a par with the likes
of Nokia and Research In Motion, which may also be targeted for takeover by
tech giants looking to dominate and monopolize the mobile playing field.
As patent litigation rises and the web becomes more mobile, large portfolios
will only increase the value of the company and may in turn become a new
currency or trading platform. Phone makers including HTC, Motorola and Samsung
are involved in lawsuits with Apple, some of them involving Android devices.
Google maybe in a better position to defend itself against competitors if it
owns these patents itself.
Patent purchasing has become a cutthroat business. Last month Google acquired a
thousand patents from IBM after losing out on a deal with Nortel Networks for
6,500 patents. Rivals Apple and Microsoft formed a consortium that won that
bout with a bid of US$4.5 billion for the Nortel prize.
Google's other Android partners such as Samsung, HTC, LG, and Sony Ericsson may
have cause for concern, since the company will now have a way to marry the
hardware to the software with a formula to mimic the success of Apple's product
range.
Android has so far been somewhat fragmented by running on many different
devices, so ownership of Motorola may now alleviate this problem for Google,
which can start developing the next Nexus smart-phone on steroids. At the same
time, the last thing Google wants is to alienate the partners that have made
Android so successful and so flexible.
To avoid keeping all their digital eggs in the same basket, HTC and LG have
developed devices for Windows 7, and Nokia has gone into partnership with
Microsoft.
As new partnerships formed in this monopolizing realm of corporate consumption,
the likelihood is that in a few years to come the only choice of smart-phones
available will be those emblazoned with an A or a G.
Software
Microsoft started a blog
this week in order to divulge details on its next release of Windows. According
to the new web resource, Windows 8 will be the biggest revamp of the operating
system since Windows 95. The company previewed the software in June and offered
a glimpse at the touch screen emphasis for operation on mobile devices
alongside traditional desktop computers.
Although particulars on new features were thin on the ground, the blog did
state that an App Store will be included with Windows 8. The company has been
fighting hard to prevent rival Apple registering a trademark for the phrase
"App Store".
Windows 8 will also be the first version to run on ARM-based processors as well
as Intel x86 chips. This will make it available across a wider range of mobile
devices that employ the ARM chip for its low power consumption and high
efficiency.
The next major outing for Windows 8 will be at the company developer conference
in September, where more information will be announced and more functions
showcased. A launch date has yet to be confirmed but it is expected to be in
the first half of 2012.
Browsers
Browser developer Mozilla, sticking to its new fast-track update cycle,
released Firefox 6 this week. Although there were few visible differences to
the previous version of the browser, a number of things were tweaked under the
hood. The include a new permissions manager to give users more control over
what websites can do with regards to cookie storage, location information,
saving passwords and displaying popups.
Also included is a faster tab group feature, improved Firefox sync, a
highlighted domain bar to warn about phishing, and better resource usage over
previous versions.
Mozilla said it would be dropping the version numbers from future releases of
the browser; "We're moving to a more Web-like convention where it's simply not
important what version you're using as long as it's the latest version."
The reaction online to what some have described as an asinine decision by the
browser maker has been unanimously negative. People want to know what version
of software they are using and web developers need to know what browser version
they are coding for.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
(Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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